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Data on Federal Research and Development Investments A Pathway to Modernization (2010) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
Pages 7-12

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From page 7...
... and the Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions (the federal support survey) -- provide some of the most significant data available to understand federal research and development (R&D)
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From page 8...
... Accordingly, the Panel on Modernizing the Infrastructure of the National Science Foundation Federal Funds Survey was established to consider the uses of the NSF federal R&D spending data and, in view of those uses, the quality of the data on federal funds for research and development and to recommend future directions for the program. The panel was asked to include the fields of science classification structure underlying the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development in its review.
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From page 9...
... The users of R&D data are now raising larger, longer term questions about how to develop a suite of data that would better inform policy debates without losing the information and historical record encapsulated in the two NSF surveys. More specifically, the changing research environment is leading to questions about whether current measures adequately capture the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of research, whether the current taxonomy of fields of S&E accurately describes the research landscape, whether the old division of S&E activities into basic and applied research and development makes for useful categories, and whether the data as now collected permit a comprehensive analysis of the role of the federal government in innovation and growth.
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From page 10...
... Most federal agencies manage programs that are defined by categories related to topic areas. For example, several agencies have common breakouts for crosscutting programs as defined by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget, including programs categorized by topic areas, such as nanotechnology, climate change, and homeland security.
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From page 11...
... For example, the role of the central industrial R&D laboratory focused on fundamental research has faded and the federal role in basic research has expanded as private basic research has contracted. Studies indicate that federally funded research is now cited in a majority of industrial patent applications, and it underlies many innovations that become successfully commercialized (Broad, 1997; Block and Keller, 2008)
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From page 12...
... . Rather than simply increasing the reporting burden, it would be preferable to consider new data search and analysis technologies tied to expanding efforts to make government data accessible (such as http://www.
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Key Terms

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  • classifies data
  • relevant data
  • private basic
  • enable science
  • data accessible

  • science classification
  • changing research
  • science using
  • competing data
  • research landscape

  • favored basic
  • significant data
  • data users
  • research environment
  • entire research

  • raw data
  • national statistics
  • key data
  • data search
  • data series


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